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Saturday, March 8, 2014

Russian TV and Fox News have somehting in common. Actually, AlJazeera can be a bit like them too--by default.

I am beginning to think that RT and Fox News are very similar in that they take us as viewers as being totally undiscerning in how we view their 'respective viewpoints. yes, booth channels produce some pretty good 'documentaries,' just like AJ. There is a difference though. At least FN has the freedom to criticise the President of the USA. That cannot be said for RT. Imagine and observe what happens when anyone in Russia goes beyond a very narrow border re being critical of Putin.
AJ produces programmes that are very thoughtful and provocative when it comes to reporting on world events beyond Doha, but I would be safe in saying that any 'questioning' of the leadership in Doha would fall on very unsympathetic and reactionary grounds.
RT is taking an almost 'amateurish' stance re its reporting of events in the Crimea and Ukraine. The translation of local peoples' comments look something like then old newsreels that Nazi Germany produced prior to annexing the Sudetenland or rolling into Poland. Maybe it a matter of style, but if that is the best the Government controlled RT can do, then journalism is the big loser along with any real aspirations of freedom of expression that the people of Russia and the border regions purportedly have.
As for Fox TV---I found it repetitively sector-orientated in its reporting re Obama Care and other issues in the USA, but it needs to be said that they can express those opinions, on a daily basis without having to look over their shoulders There is of course the balance that exists in the USA, re access to other opinions in the media. I may be critical of the USA on some levels, but 'freedom of expression, still exists in ways that DON'T in Russian and most of the Middle East. Still- if my 'pay/TV had an option, I would not include FN in the 'package. Unfortunately, you have to take them all, in New Zealand, but at least we have 'options,' and the 'turn-off button.'www.authorneilcoleman.com